Broken Frontier

With over 200,000 comics and animation fans having already viewed the award-winning animated film Zoom Suit, and an anticipated 100,000 more still to come, a built in audience is expected for the debut of the comic book mini-series in April 2006. The first issue of the four issue mini-series, written by creator and former Marvel Entertainment Brand Manager, John Taddeo, with art by Billy Dallas Patton (Astonishing X-Men) and covers by Patton, Billy Tucci and Bob Layton, will appear in the February issue of Previews under publisher listing Superverse. 

In issue #1, an alien craft crash lands in Roswell, New Mexico, and the reports are heard around the world.  Fast forward 60 years. The suit is stolen by turncoat NSA Agent Simon Bane. In a theft attempt reminiscent of DB Cooper, Simon leaps from an Army chopper at 8,000 feet and begins to don the Zoom Suit. However, he has made a deadly error: Aliens are small!  The suit doesn’t fit! Simon and the suit fall helplessly to earth at terminal velocity. On Earth, thirteen year old Myles Mason is bummed about not being able to afford a Halloween costume, when suddenly, from the sky, alien armor crashes to Earth just a few feet behind him.

Zoom Suit is aimed at an 8 to 80 audience and looks to bring some fun back to comics. The first issue features a $2.95 cover price and contains 36 pages of story and art plus two full letters pages and ads parodying “old skool” ads seen in Marvel and DC comics for X-Ray specs, giant monsters, etc. The issue also contains many pop culture references and inside jokes as well as a secret code hidden throughout that will take fans on a mission outside the book, across the internet and into the middle of an alien conspiracy. Those that can decipher the code and solve the mystery will receive prizes such as DVDs and limited edition comics and trading cards.

“As a 30 year fan of comics, I can remember the days when comics didn’t take themselves so seriously,” said Taddeo. “That’s what we’re hoping to achieve with Zoom Suit.  Plenty of superhero action, but still a fun read, sprinkled with loads of pop culture and inside jokes.”

The Zoom Suit mini-series will pay homage to some of the greatest armored heroes in comics’ history by featuring variant covers by some of the greatest artists on those heroes. Look for covers by Gene Colan, Bob Layton, Jim Starlin and Bart Sears.

In order to assure a timely, monthly schedule, all four issues of the series will be completed before the first issue ships in April. Because of this, retailers will be sent the special retailer only Team Zoom Suit Edition #1 featuring a Billy Tucci cover in February with their Previews order packs. If you’d like your retailer to share an early look at Zoom Suit with you, be sure to put in your request now.  

The award-winning animated short Zoom Suit, created by John Taddeo, can be seen online at www.superverse.com.